Goodbye Kraus

In most cases, when a politician resigns, I would say thank you for your service. But not in the case of Will Kraus. (Aug. 1, 3A, “Senator Will Kraus of Lee’s Summit named to Missouri Tax Commission”)

The voters of Lee’s Summit should be glad to see him gone. He ended up on the wrong side of most of the legislature’s important bills.

To mention only a few of his accomplishments: supporting concealed carry with no training, leading the charge to override the governor’s veto to make Missouri an open-carry state and adding an amendment to kill the statewide registry of prescription drugs.

Gov. Eric Greitens will not need much time to see the mistake he made in appointing Kraus to the tax commission. Good riddance.

Ben D. Brite

Lee’s Summit

This isn’t us

How embarrassed is every resident of Missouri?

First we elect a gun-carrying man as our governor. Then the NAACP issues a travel advisory for its members and people of color. (Aug. 2, 1A, “New law, racial attacks cited by NAACP in issuing Missouri travel advisory”) We will harass and intimidate, and then do everything we can to keep you from filing lawsuits for discrimination.

What has happened to our Midwest values of inclusion? I’ll tell you what: We have elected people such as Gov. Eric Greitens and across the border Secretary of State Kris Kobach, officials who clearly are doing all they can to take us back to the Jim Crow era.

Anna Pearson

Lee’s Summit

Transgender policy

Mary Sanchez is, as usual, right on target with her July 29 column, “Kansas City’s contentious LGBT history is relevant today.” (11A)

President Donald Trump’s gambit to deny full military service to transgender individuals is a lose-lose proposition, and I have a hard time believing that fair-minded Americans — even those numbered among Trump’s supporters — would support it.

All the reasoning for the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military is faulty. Willingness to serve and adequate skills, not gender, are the valid criteria for fitness to serve. Actually, thousands of transgender individuals are already serving with distinction.

I agree with Mary that the same “sorry arguments” once advanced to keep blacks, women, gays and lesbians out of the military are being advanced, perhaps because this “minority group is not well understood and therefore easily demeaned.”

Congress and the military are already pushing back on the effort to ostracize transgender people in this way. I hope they will be successful in their efforts.

Janelle Lazzo

Roeland Park

Also applicable?

I recently learned that in 2010, 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, the son of the new White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan when he stepped on a land mine.

Then-candidate Donald Trump once called Sen. John McCain a loser for being shot down over North Vietnam and captured, so does this mean that Kelly’s son, who gave his life for his country, is considered a loser by our illustrious commander in chief?

Verne Christensen

Olathe

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